


Ten Times

by GohanRoxas



Series: It's Really You {Riku x Kairi} [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, Light Angst, Mild Sexual Content, POV First Person, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:54:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GohanRoxas/pseuds/GohanRoxas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten. That's how many times Riku fell in love with his princess. From the day she arrived to the day they truly became one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Times

**Author's Note:**

> There is a decisive lack of RiKai on this site. It should be known that SoKai is and always will be my Kingdom Hearts OTP, but I have to say, the idea of Riku and Kairi together is just as enchanting.

_“Hey, Riku?” the auburn-haired girl asked suddenly, raising her head from where it lay on his shoulder._

_"Yeah, Kairi?” her silver-haired boyfriend replied, copying her intonation perfectly._

_Kairi slapped his bare arm gently, but she was smiling. “When exactly was it?”_

_"When exactly was what?”_

_“When you fell in love with me.”_

_He chuckled and looked into her sea-blue eyes. “There was more than one time.”_

* * *

The first time I fell in love with you was the first time we met. I’d managed to drag Sora away from the cave on the play island and out to the Mayor’s house back on the main island after hearing that you’d suddenly appeared.

Once we’d managed to convince the Mayor and his wife to let us see you, we rushed up towards where you sat, knees curled up against your chest, head down.

Sora rocked once on his feet and said, in a sing-song tone he was so fond of, “Hel-loooo?”

You raised your head and looked at us, eyes a bit dull, your face an odd mask of emotion.

“So…you’re new around here?” my friend grinned. “Well, I’m Sora, and this is my best friend Riku!”

“H-hi,” I managed. Hey, don’t laugh. I was seven years old and I’d just met the prettiest thing in the world.

You gave us a sad smile. “Hi. I’m…Kairi.”

“Are you okay?” Sora asked, leaning forward, his wide eyes worried.

“Yeah…I just…miss my grandma…”

“We’ll go find her!”

You shook your head. “She’s in another world.”

“Another world?” I asked, shocked. Images passed through my mind – of a brown-haired man and his strangely large key, and of a tan, silver-haired boy who’d left the islands years before.

You gulped and nodded. “I can’t remember where it was, or what it was like…but I know my grandma lives there.”

Impulsively, Sora and I both took your hands and gave you smiles, hoping to cheer you up. “If you ever need friends,” my friend grinned, “we’ll be here. Promise.”

You looked at both of us, your eyes shocked, and then you finally gave us the first happy smile you’d ever given us.

And my heart completely melted.

* * *

The second time I fell in love with you was the last time we saw one another. At least, when we were both the same person we once were.

The night of the storm, and the night the door was opened.

We were the last ones to leave the island that day. Sora had gone first, then Tidus and Wakka together, followed by Selphie.

As we walked to the pier, I could hear the whispers that I’d been hearing all day. Whispers that I know now were Ansem…Xehanort’s Heartless…

“Riku?” you said, hunched over a little as you looked at me, your arms clasped behind your back.

“Huh?”

“Are you okay?”

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“Well…” You made a few shy movements with your body. “You were staring at me.”

“I-I was?”

“Mm-hm,” you confirmed. “Does this have anything to do with that challenge you set Sora for that foot-race?”

“What? About naming the raft?”

You pouted cutely. “No! About sharing a paopu with me!”

“O-oh,” I muttered. “Th-that.”

“Were you just messing with him?”

“Y-yeah…” My cheeks flashed pink and I hid it by bowing my head.

“Suuure you were,” you giggled, patting my cheek mockingly. Then, without another word, you jumped into your boat and rowed away.

* * *

The third time was arguably the worst time I fell in love with you, because you had very little to do with it. I’d already aligned with Maleficent and her band of dimwits, and Hades had been grilling me again about how I could have helped Jafar from being defeated by Sora. I’d just told him to shut up, that I’d done my job.

“Indeed you have, my boy,” Maleficent practically purred. “Indeed you have. And now I shall keep my end of the bargain.”

I gave her a suspicious look as she led me out of the audience chamber and into a small alcove nearby.

“Here’s your precious princess,” the witch smirked, moving her dark cloak to reveal… _you_.

You sat with your knees together, feet splayed to either side of you, your hands clasped in your lap, your face blank and your eyes even more so.

“Kairi!” I shouted, rushing to you, my hands touching everywhere I thought right to – your shoulders, your legs, your hands, your cheek.

“So concerned for her,” Maleficent smirked. “And yet your precious Sora cares little enough to go gallivanting around the worlds with talking animals.”

I glared at her, but it was half-hearted. I didn’t care what she’d said about Sora now.

She’d reunited me with you. And you were _mine_.

* * *

The fourth time was when my body was not my own. When Xehanort – Ansem, whatever the hell he wanted to call himself – had taken total control and manifested himself using my body.

Sora had stabbed himself with my Keyblade to return your heart to you, at the cost of his own. Even as Ansem delivered his villainous diatribe to Donald and Goofy, I began to realise at last…

I was a fool. A jealous, love-struck, gullible fool.

Sora had so many things I didn’t. A sunny outlook on life, affection from the girls…

…from you.

Yeah, you heard me. I was convinced you were in love with Sora, especially after he became your knight and sacrificed himself for you.

But I still loved you. I couldn’t let them take you. Not again.

 _Silence, boy!_ The harsh voice rang within my mind. Ansem. _This body is mine now!_

_Who cares? My body might submit, my heart might succumb…but my mind will always resist!_

I managed to take control briefly, bringing Ansem to a standstill and manifest myself in front of him. “You’ve gotta run! The Heartless are coming!”

“C’mon!” Donald shouted in response, ushering Goofy and you.

“But Riku!” you shouted.

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll see you again. Now go!”

And go you did.

* * *

Time number five was when it wasn’t even you. It was someone else.

I was in the depths of Castle Oblivion, struggling against a facsimile of Sora. A Sora that rejected me for the darkness. A Sora that wanted to see me destroyed.

I fell through the light, plummeting. And I suddenly heard a voice. Your voice, and yet it wasn’t yours at all.

You – she – were telling me that I didn’t need to choose. I walked a path all my own. A path where light and darkness met. I didn’t need to pick light or dark. I could be both.

And I heard you. Really, actually you. “Riku!”

The illusion shattered and I accepted my new path, striking down those who would stop me.

The ones who would stop me from coming back to you.

* * *

Number six was a long time coming. I’d spent the better part of a year as a man with a different name, a different face…working for a man who was much the same.

Working to bring Sora back.

I did a lot more things I wasn’t proud of. There was…a girl. She looked like you, but…she wasn’t Naminé…she had dark hair, and she looked like you used to, years before…

On orders from DiZ – Ansem the Wise – I manipulated her. Twice. I’m not proud of it.

I had to stop Roxas from going on a suicide mission to attack Organization XIII and free Kingdom Hearts. She…she told him to do it. I had to become Ansem again to stop him. I’m not proud of it.

There’s one thing I’m the most proud of from when I worked with DiZ. Letting Naminé and Axel go when I’d been ordered to kill them.

If I hadn’t let them go, I wouldn’t have seen you again.

We were in the Organization’s castle. Naminé was pulling you along as you ran from the cells, Pluto close behind.

Saïx stopped you, two Berserker Nobodies flanking him.

He held out one gloved hand to you. “I’ll take you to see Sora.” From where I was standing, covered in shadow, my Keyblade – I could barely believe that Soul Eater had become a Keyblade all my own – gripped in my hand, I couldn’t see your reaction, but I did hear a footstep. “You don’t want that?” Saïx’s harsh voice questioned.

“I do,” you said proudly. “More than anything. But not with you around!”

And in that moment, I’d never been more proud of you.

“If I had a heart, this would be where I die of laughter,” the Nobody sneered, getting ready to sic his minions on you.

Now it was my turn.

On silent feet, I cut down both Berserkers, the last of them landing with a thump before it vanished. Saïx turned and looked at me. “You…” he snarled. “Didn’t Axel take care of you?”

Smirking behind my hood, I released my weapon and launched a dark fireball at him, a strike he blocked with crossed arms; the shockwave was enough to send him reeling back.

I didn’t let him recover, and I charged at him, slamming him into a wall.

“Riku?!” I heard your voice suddenly and my head turned to look. You were looking at me with a wild kind of hope in your eyes.

The pressure beneath my hands disappeared; Saïx had used the momentary distraction on my part to escape through a Corridor. I could feel his smirk.

Even as I made to follow him, I felt a tugging on my coat.

Pluto had grabbed the bottom of it with his teeth and was trying to drag me towards you and Naminé.

You stepped forwards, that hope still obvious within you. “Riku…you’re really here?” Your hands reached out to drop my hood…

…and you saw what I’d become.

Or so I thought.

Suddenly your arms were around me, gripping me tight like you’d never let go.

“Don’t you go running off, Riku. I won’t lose you again.”

* * *

Time number seven was when we’d finally managed to catch up to Sora, Donald and Goofy. You’d showed amazing prowess with your Keyblade – especially considering you were an absolute amateur; Sora and I had practice with our wooden swords, but you hadn’t been into that kind of thing.

And now Sora had finally seen us. You two held each other like dear friends and I couldn’t stop my jealousy from rising up again. I extinguished it in a moment, knowing that feeling that again would only make our lives worse.

Even as I was making to leave, Sora stopped me. Calling me “Ansem” and “Xehanort’s Heartless”. He told me how angry he’d been for all the things “I” had done, and yet…he thanked “me” for saving you.

I chuckled once. “You are far too quick to forgive,” I muttered in reply, my voice still sounding like Ansem’s.

Suddenly, there were rushing footsteps behind me, then pressure on my waist and hand. You’d wrapped one arm around my waist, and grabbed my hand with your own. “Riku, don’t go!”

And it more or less devolved from there. After all we’d been through – Sora with his quests to seal Keyholes and open Gates, me with my path of redemption and skulking through the darkness, you with being left behind only to be dragged into the conflict once again – it was _you_ , the so-called “damsel in distress” who brought us together after all this time.

* * *

The eighth time was when I returned to the island as a Keyblade Master, without Sora in tow. Yen Sid had told me to come back and bring something – some _one_ – back to him.

When the Star Shard I’d borrowed brought me home, you were already waiting for me. “Riku! You’re back!” Impulsively, you embraced me, one hand almost reflexively going to my neck.

That was something I’d learned since Sora and I came home. You’d somehow become enamoured with my long hair, and every time you got the chance, your fingers were running through it.

Only this time you’d forgotten that I’d gotten a haircut, so your fingers were just tracing lines along the skin of my neck.

“Uh, Kairi?” I said quietly, my cheeks going a little red.

“O-oh. Sorry!” You backed away, your own face a little red. “So, what happened at the Exam?”

“Well…I passed…”

“That’s great!”

“…but Sora didn’t.”

“…oh.” You looked at me sadly.

“But it wasn’t his fault. Xehanort sabotaged the Exam to try and make Sora the last of his army.”

“His _what_?”

I briefly sketched in what we’d learned; that Xehanort had been traveling through time, collecting potential vessels for his heart – the Thirteen Darknesses; that we needed to collect the Seven Lights – be they Keyblade Wielders or Princesses of Heart – to oppose him in the next Keyblade War.

“So…why did you come back?” you asked me.

I took your hand and held up my Star Shard. “You’ll see.”

When I brought you back to Yen Sid’s tower, the old sorcerer explained to you everything – that you needed to be fully trained in Keyblade wielding, alongside Lea, to protect yourself, should Xehanort choose to take the Princesses rather than wait for us to collect Keyblade wielders.

With every ounce of information he gave you, the resolved look on your face never faded. When Yen Sid finally ended, I looked at you. “This won’t be easy. We won’t go easy on you, you know.”

You just nodded. “I know. This time, I’ll fight.”

I smiled. “Good girl.”

* * *

The ninth time was what felt like an eternity later. The Keyblade War was over. The three that had started this fight – Terra, Ventus and Aqua – were finally reunited and – unbelievably – Roxas, Naminé and Xion had even become their own people. Lea was surrounded by friends now, even if he’d lost one in Isa. Sora was finally named a Keyblade Master, as were Terra, Ventus, Roxas, Xion…and you.

When our surprisingly large group returned to the islands – the three of us were joined by Roxas and Naminé – we stayed on the play island for quite some time.

I was watching you and Naminé, who you’d already taken to calling your sister, as you giggled about something or other. Though I would be one of the first to admit Naminé was beautiful…she was nothing compared to you.

“You should just kiss her,” a familiar voice said behind me. Sora. And Roxas flanked him.

“Wait, what?”

“Kairi,” my best friend smiled. “Kiss her.”

“But…I thought you…”

He shrugged. “I did. But she likes you more than she does me.” There was a tiny pang of agony behind his kind eyes. “Besides, you remember that pigtailed girl who appeared in Twilight Town?”

“Vanille, you mean?”

“Yeah. She asked me out via Ducknet.”

That name still makes me laugh. Of course, it’s so named because Donald’s Uncle Scrooge had invented it after the war ended, but it really needed a new name.

“Well, good for you, man.”

“Why don’t you kiss her?” Roxas asked suddenly.

I blushed a little and scratched my head. “Maybe I’m just…shy.”

The two “brothers” suddenly spun me around and pushed me. “Go kiss her!” they ordered in tandem.

Seeing what was happening, Naminé headed past me, winking as she walked by, and linked hands with Roxas.

You stood up and looked at me, something hiding behind your eyes.

“W-what?” I stammered, looking at you.

Then you grabbed my head and pulled me into a kiss.

* * *

The tenth time I fell in love with you was the first time we _made_ love. It had been two years since the war had ended, and I could still scarcely believe that we now lay in my bed, completely naked, our bodies intertwined as you moaned quietly.

My hips rolled against yours as I kissed your neck, and I could feel in the way your body moved against mine how much you enjoyed it.

How long we were at it I can’t remember, I was too caught up in the pleasure.

But when we’d finally reached an end – when we just lay there, your body curling around mine, your head nuzzling into the crook of my neck – we finally said it.

“Riku…” you said quietly, looking up at me. “I love you.”

I smiled and kissed your forehead. “I love you too, Kairi. I always have.”

* * *

_Kairi was blushing outrageously as her boyfriend described their first time._

_“What?” he said innocently. “You asked.”_

_The auburn-haired princess suddenly looked at him, a glint in her innocent-seeming eye. “So, the most recent time you fell in love with me was the last time we had sex?”_

_“Yeah. Why?”_

_She began tracing circles over Riku’s chest. “I was just thinking…what would you say to falling in love with me all over again?” She winked._

_Riku blinked for a moment, until the meaning of her words finally grabbed him. “Oh.”_

_Kairi giggled wickedly._

_“I’d be okay with that,” he smirked, pulling her close and kissing her seriously._


End file.
